light being shown on the beach, close to the water’s edge, and another at the background.  These two lights being got into a line was a proof that the opening was arrived at; the vessels then steered straight in and anchored under the Confederate batteries at Fort Fisher.  More vessels were lost crawling along this dangerous beach than were taken by the cruisers.  I have seen three burning at one time, for the moment a vessel struck she was set fire to, to prevent the blockaders getting her off when daylight came.

This system of evading the cruisers, however, having been discovered, it was put a stop to by a very ingenious method, by which several vessels were captured and an end put to that little game.  Of course I can only conjecture the way in which it was done, but it seemed to me to be thus:  At the extreme end of the line of blockaders lay one of them with a kedge anchor, down so close to the shore that she left but a very little space for the blockade-runner to pass between her and the beach.  The captain of the runner, however, trusting to his vessel’s speed and invisibility, dashed through this space, and having got by the cruiser thought himself safe.  Poor fellow! he was safe for a moment, but in such a trap that his only chance of getting out of it was by running on shore or giving up.  For no sooner had he passed than up went a rocket from the cruiser who had seen the runner rush by, and who now moved a little further in towards the shore, so as to stop her egress by the way she went in; and the other vessels closing round by a pre-arranged plan, the capture or destruction of the blockade-runner was a certainty.

Some of the captains most pluckily ran their vessels on shore, and frequently succeeded in setting fire to them; but the boats of the cruisers were sometimes too sharp in their movements to admit of this being done, and the treatment of those who tried to destroy their vessels was, I am sorry to say, very barbarous and unnecessary.  Moreover, men who endeavoured to escape by jumping overboard after the vessel was on shore were often fired at by grape and shell, in what seemed to me a very unjustifiable manner.  Great allowance, however, must be made for the men-of-war’s men, who after many hard nights of dreary watching constantly under weigh, saw their well-earned prize escaping by being run on shore and set fire to, just as they imagined they had got possession.  On several occasions they have been content to tow the empty shell of an iron vessel off the shore, her valuable cargo having been destroyed by fire.

But I have left my little craft lying as was stated about sixty miles from the entrance of the river.  I had determined to try a new method of getting through the blockading squadron, seeing that the usual plan, as described above, was no longer feasible or, at least, advisable.  I have mentioned that our position was well defined by observations and soundings, so we determined to run straight through the blockaders,